The Founding Fathers understood that by protecting the proprietary rights of artists, authors, entrepreneurs, innovators and inventors, they were promoting the greater public welfare. The continued protection of these fundamental rights is essential to American innovation and competitiveness. Read these coalition guidelines to understand why.

This coalition letter calls for the strong enforcement of intellectual property (IP) laws in trade against all infringers — foreign or domestic. IP theft is costing the U.S. economy nearly $600 billion each year, with the rise of online theft being a major contributing factor which undermines U.S. innovation and investment. Free trade is essential, […]

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story by Greg Ip about the decline of American innovation that explained how the United States is running out of “big ideas.” Let us hope that is not the case. Historically, innovation has been a main driver of the American economy with manifold benefits for consumers. If American […]

If a patent is violated and the government agrees that the infringing product should be banned from importation, reasonable steps should be considered to limit any immediate impact on consumers, when necessary. An infringement case on a medical device used for cancer treatment provides a prime example of intellectual property (IP) protection and consumer protection. […]

Today’s American Health & Drug Benefits (AH&DB) Journal, a peer-reviewed forum, published an article written by three ACI experts — Erwin A. Blackstone, Professor of Economics at Temple University; Joseph P. Fuhr, Jr., Professor of Economics at Widener University; and Steve Pociask, President of the American Consumer Institute, Center for Citizen Research. The article can […]

Once again, the American public seems to have a better grasp on macroeconomics than does our legislature. American citizens by and large believe that piracy and counterfeiting kill jobs and damage the economy. The recent release of The Property Rights Alliance annual “International Property Rights Index” marked a subtle upswing in the United States’ approach […]

This article is written by Barry Umansky, law professor at Ball State’s Digital Policy Institute, and Steve Pociask of the American Consumer Institute. The views expressed in the piece are our own and do not represent the views of any organization, committee or company. It can be downloaded and read at The Hill.

This piece, written by ACI president, Steve Pociask, discussions calls by one wireless competitor to ban other competitors from the FCC’s upcoming wireless broadband auction. The piece can be read here on the Daily Callers’ website.

The US Chamber of Commerce wrote a blog on a recent study released by ACI. The study showed that consumers know and care about intellectual property protections and enforcement. The blog is available at the chamber’s website.

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Americans are facing challenges sometimes caused by questionable public policy and regulations that raise industry costs – both of which lead to higher consumer prices and fewer choices for consumers. ACI's focus is to support concepts which spur competition, encourage innovation, create jobs and benefit consumers overall, while maintaining reasonable and necessary consumer safeguards.

We serve as an academic voice for consumers. Our goal is to build awareness, survey consumer attitudes on public policy issues, facilitate discussion, and offer research-based solutions that have the best interest of consumers in mind.

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Is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational and research institute founded on the belief that consumers’ interests are not satisfactorily represented by the wide variety of advocacy and consumer organizations that often represent small subsets of consumers and special interests... Read More...